A business interview

Listen to the business interview to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Presenter: Welcome to today's show. We're very happy to have Anna Oliveira as our guest today. Anna is the creator and founder of HomeworX – spelled with an 'x' we should note – an app which helps teenagers with their homework. Thanks for coming in, Anna.

Anna: Thanks for having me.

Presenter: So, tell us about your app. How does it work?

Anna: Well, teenagers and their parents have numerous challenges when it comes to homework these days. In many families both parents work and don't have much available time to help their kids with their homework. And even if they do have time to help, they may not be able to offer support with the content. What I mean is, they may not know, or at least remember, enough in any given subject to support.

Presenter: You mean they might not be able to remember complex maths or might have never studied certain subjects, such as biology or economics, themselves?

Anna: Exactly. So they might want to support their children with their homework, but have neither the time nor the knowledge to do so.

Presenter: I see. So the app helps solve this problem?

Anna: Yes, and more. The next issue is that tutors can be expensive, and there may be long waiting lists for specialist tutors in the town or region you live in. Our HomeworX app brings students and tutors together online. Students can search a database of pre-approved tutors and sign up for live online support. They don't need to be in the same town or city.

Presenter: That sounds really great.

Anna: It is. And this approach also enables us to offer the tutoring services at lower prices because there's no travelling time involved for the tutor to get to the student's home. And tutors who live in remote areas are happy to get access to more students, and be able to work from home, even at lower rates.

Presenter: This all sounds great. So, how did you come up with the idea?

Anna: Well, as you might guess, I was one of those parents I described earlier. I really wanted to help my son with his homework, but I was either too busy with work or I didn't actually know anything about the subjects he was having difficulty with. Also, we live in an area where there aren't many tutors and the ones that are there are either very expensive or have long waiting lists.

Presenter: Yes. I can understand your predicament. Well, it sounds like a very useful app that is clearly meeting a need. And its popularity obviously speaks for itself.

Anna: Thank you.

Presenter: So, do you have plans for the future?

Anna: We've just secured some funding and hope to expand the range of services we offer using the app.

Presenter: We wish you the best of luck. Thanks again for coming in. That was Anna Oliveira, founder of the tutoring app HomeworX (with an 'x', don't forget!), which is available for both Apple and Android devices. Join us again next week for another business interview. Have a great week, everyone.

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

What's your favourite app for learning and why?

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Language level

B2 Upper intermediate

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My favourite app for learning is Coursera, which is very useful and has different types of courses. I like this app because I can find many interesting topics from important universities. The courses allow you to practice and join the forum for more information. Also, I've used Aba English app to learn English. In my opinion, this app is useful and different from other apps to learn languages because creating real situations and put you in different contexts. You can practice listening, pronunciation, and reading. However, this app can be very repetitive and be in a long time boring and also you can't practice speaking.

Honestly speaking, I don't use any app for learning. I used to use some of them to learn English some years ago, mostly on my way home or to work, but now I don't them at all. They are quite helpful in certain cases when you don't have much time at home and can't spare any time at work but I think if we're discussing e-learning, it's much better to use your desktop or even a laptop. In this case, you can rely on a much bigger screen, faster internet, and better sound. As for me, I like to learn at home and use all actual devices to meet my goals. On the other hand, our smartphones are great helpers to those who like to learn outdoor or in transport. You can spend your boring commute time with a profit. Especially, if you practice your listening skill. Just use an app for listening to different topics, dialogs or so. Another good point - watching the serials on your target language to practice. I think it's much easier to learn anything nowadays. You can also use your phone as a dictionary instead of the paper ones. It's a huge help for everybody!

My biggest problem in English is speaking. I believe there are so many apps for learning English these days. But my top favourite is ELSA SPEAK. 2 years ago, when I was in high school, I thought that my pronunciation was great until I got a job which is I had to communicate with a lot of foreigners. People rarely understand me. Then I realized my English was not good as much as I think. I considered pronunciation as a key to speak English with great fluency and confidence. So I found this wonderful app. I use this app as a means to improve my pronunciation and vocabulary. ELSA is just an AI machine, hearing me and point out whether I'm right or wrong. ELSA will nerver overlook your every singal mistake. Once ELSA understand me, I believe 90% people out there will understand me

I have used plenty of apps for learning. In today's world, we have a range of learning services offered by many apps, especially after the pandemic. Though online learning has been there for a while, it has attained the peak of its popularity in recent times. To name a few, Udemy, course era etc are the leading players in this sect.

My favorite app is Cake. I use to practice in English. It is successful app because it provide daily conversation with video and it is quite short and everyday it shows me a new video.

My favorite app is Zamerican English due to make you enjoying with learning of English and it has more useful information.

I've used many apps since I started to studying English, but I think Anki and Duolingo were the most useful. However, only by using apps makes it too dificult, I think that other ways to improve English must be used. Sometimes, I say to myself: "Well, my English journey is far from over", because I know it's hard to reach this goal.

I've used some different apps and I've found good options for learning english, but it depends on what you want maybe listening, grammar or vocabulary, among the online alternatives, youtube is the best option as you can get a lot of examples and lessons to learn about teachers around the world, exactly you could compare their methodologies and you'll follow someone in their channels to grow the knowledge up. Also I've recently watched a video on phrasal verbs and I love it.

I have been trying numerous apps, one of my favorites is the British council and 6-minute English app by BBC, its easy to use and helps me to improve in learning English.

I didn´t know 6 minute English, I´ll try it. I am using Duolingo and British Council free also ABA English (My company pays for it).